On cutting free what was never yours to carry I had a sort of waking dream today. It was a most amazing experience. I had been reading the news and, as is pretty common these days, felt a panic attack coming on. I used a technique I’ve learned to focus on the physical sensations in the […]
Tag: Emotional Composting
Live the experiment
Daily Reflection 2025-05-21 I want to coin a new term: larva brain. We talk about our reptile brains; this is like that but different. The larva brain is a sort of layer over top of the organic brain. These larva are parasitic, feeding off the electricity of a brain that’s freaking out. It’s the larva […]
The goal isn’t the goal
Daily Reflections 2025-05-19 It’s a rainy morning. We had a gorgeous day yesterday and I spent most of it in the garden preparing beds for planting so I’m a bit stiff and sore this morning, but in a good way. And I have a few thought rattling around. I read a great piece by Jennifer […]
Permission to be Seen
On barbs, bravery and belonging My dad turned 93 last week. He’s been sober for about sixty of those years, with a gap in the middle that started about the time I came along. The drinking hadn’t always been a problem. It came on in his thirties, the way these things sometimes do. Pressures started […]
The Council of Stones
A story about trusting the counsel of rocks and other things older and wiser than you. Some evenings, the world feels too loud for language. Emails multiply like rats, the news mutates into performance art, and even well-meaning people suddenly require more emotional bandwidth than the average small-town power grid can provide. On those nights, […]
The Myth of the Bottleneck
Because patience isn’t passive Sometimes Monday afternoon feels like it should be Friday night. Thursday at least. Everything is over-scheduled. The calendar looks like a game of Tetris played by an anxious god: ferry runs, presentations, meetings, and the occasional spiritual ambush disguised as a “networking dinner.” You think the bottleneck is out there — […]
You’re gonna feel this.
I’m seeing a lot of bruised and battered, dazed and confused folk wandering around out there, so I’m hoping this might provide a bit of relief for some of you. If my circle of friends or my own personal experience is any indication, a lot of us are starting to question our mental health lately. […]